


Homeward Bound

by AceQueenKing



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Ex-Lovers but Still Friends, Family Issues, Jane Foster Loves Science, Jealous Loki (Marvel), M/M, Post-Ragnarok, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2019-02-01 17:10:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12709278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/pseuds/AceQueenKing
Summary: Jane Foster is doing Just Fine after Thor left, despite what all her friends think. She has her routines, her studies, her new furniture - and all of this gets tossed out the window when Thor comes back to her New Mexico home, carrying Loki, Bruce, and a bunch of Asgardians and aliens in tow.





	Homeward Bound

Jane had adjusted well to waking up alone.

At first, it had been awkward: the golden strands of hair she kept finding on her pillow, the drains clogged with long hair that was not her own, the - well, there was a lot to thor besides his hair, but nothing  _lingered_  in quite the same way. 

But, a month on, she'd developed a routine. She woke up to her alarm promptly (and did not have to wiggle out from underneath a gigantic arm), she brushed her teeth (and was not distracted by a lovely Asgardian bum as - she'd found out - they did not have quite the same modesty humans had), made breakfast (at a substantial savings, since she no longer had to buy and cook 3x the amount of eggs and potatoes that she, herself, could consume), and went to work (without a lovely - but needy - golden haired retriever of a man interrupting her  _constantly_ ). It was a good routine. Jane thrived on having time for herself, the time where she could study to her heart's content. The break-up had been amicable, and Thor had promised to still help her understand the properties of the Einstein-Rosen bridge when he wasn't off Avenger-ing. All things considered, Jane had felt she had come out with substantially less "wailing and gnashing of teeth" than Darcy had insisted she would.

But then, Darcy was wrong about a lot of things about Jane. The break-up had not devastated her. Thor had not ruined her for mortal men (on the contrary, in fact). She had not needed to listen to any of the albums Darcy had brought over, nor had she consumed half the frankly worrisome amount of chocolate her assistant had bought her. (She had had a bit, in all fairness - Jane _was_ human and she did like chocolate.) She was just Jane, and that was just fine. If the mornings were a bit less hectic and a lot quieter - well - she was okay with that.  This had been one of those mornings, and it had been a good one. She was looking over her notes from her late night study the day before and had come up with three new ideas on how to improve her formula.

Jane was just having her morning coffee when she heard the first knock on the door.  She paused. A second knock came. She got up, and a foreboding feeling began to creep its way through her veins, cold and a bit unwelcome.  No one she knew knocked - not Eric, not Darcy, and certainly not her mother. The only person she knew who would be so polite as to knock on her trailer was - well, he had gone back to Asgard now. 

She swung open the door, blinking, only remembering after she had already swung open the door that she hadn't bothered to change out of her pajamas. But that was fine; surely whatever mistaken missionary or lost soul coming to the New Mexico desert would forgive her. 

Except, of course, naturally, it wasn't a missionary. 

Thor, on the other side, surrounded by both his brother Loki and a surprisingly large retinue of, judging by the rather medieval looking clothing, could only be a literal metric ton of Asgardians, along with more varieties of alien life that Jane had ever suspected existed.

She stared in horror down at Thor. Thor grinned at her. "Jane!" Thor said. He looked different. She gazed at him. He grinned. She noticed he had both lost an eye and he had cut his hair. She wanted to ask. He looked up at her adoringly. She decided that she would wait to ask.

"Thor," she said, annoyed at how her voice came out as a squeak. She tried to glean clues as to what they were here for - beyond, evidently, embarrassing her, but came up with nothing. Few were carrying anything but themselves, and Loki and Thor were the only too who looked somewhat - unbothered. "Uh, Loki?" 

"It'll do, I suppose," Loki sniped. He made a gesture that was too hard for her to guess on just a few sips of coffee and teleported behind her. She opened her mouth, trying to figure out which question was the most important. 

"Uh, what?" She said; Thor smiled. In the mirror near the door of her trailer, she could see Loki placing his feet on her brand new white couch that she had _just_ bought. 

"Can I come in?" He asked. She nodded. She supposed there was little need to ask him to give her a moment to freshen up, not with Loki all but flouncing in the background on her couch. She realized he hadn't taken his boots off and bit back an insult under her breath. Loki was, technically, her guest, even if he hadn't asked, and - didn't Thor say things with his bother were rather ...complicated? Ugh. It was way too early for this.  

"Yeah, let me get some coffee." She said, groggily. 

Thor came in and gave her an awkward - hug? sort of? She wasn't sure. A little squeze of her arm against his, not near the full body hug he had used to give her - but, well. Things were different now, she supposed? She looked out into the crowd for a moment, unsure of what to say.

"So miss, should we uh, sit out here then?" A gigantic, blue rock man said. He looked sheepish, or at least as sheepish as a blue rock faced alien could be. Jane had seen many life-forms over her time with Thor, but most of them had been humanoid, even the elves.  She wanted to ask what he was made of, whether it was a particularly hard kind of carbon or something else entirely, but that perhaps, would not be the best thing to say by way of introduction. 

"If you'd like," she said instead, nodding, her hand still on the door. 

"I will return with good news for you, my friends!" Thor bellowed. She looked over to the kitchenette. Thor was already making himself an omelet, and despite the fact she'd just bought a new carton, he was already driving her out of it. So much for saving on her food budget. 

"It's just, uh, Mieke here, he's had to go since Asgard exploded and uh, well, I was hoping humans might have restrooms that would allow a quasi-amphibious robot the ability to relieve himself," the blue rock man said. "Oh and I'm Korg, by the way."

"Hi Korg." She tried not to stare. "Yes, Mieke can use the restroom if he, she, it, whatever - likes. Anyone who has to go can erm, go." She said, awkwardly. She debated taking a step back from the door. She wasn't sure exactly if she should hold the door open - was that rude? She pondered, eventually she would need to shut the door but on the other hand, _wow,_ there were a _lot_ of Asgardians out there. 

"Okay, great then," Korg said, seemingly unbothered by the bizarreness of talking to a human in bunny slippers. "Go ahead, Mieke. Me and the rest of us will just be out here, refuging. Ah nice, you've got metal walls here too," Korg said, flashing her what she took to be a crumbly smile. "Nice to see no matter how far you go, you find something like home. C'mon all, let's go sit on that big metal thing," he said. "Save you a spot, Mieke." 

Mieke - who was, indeed, a robotic lizard thing whose components she would  _love_  to examine - waddled through her trailer carefully. It had knives for hands. Of course it did. It was, so far, that kind of day.

She let go of the door and sat down. Thor, now finished with making his omelet, was shoveling it into his face. Loki had gotten off her cushions and teleported to her table, sitting near Thor and watching him wolf down his omelet with an expression of such serious study that Jane had only ever felt toward astrophysics. 

"So uhm, what's going on, guys?" She asked. Loki picked up her coffee and took a long sip of it, then turned toward her. 

"We live here now," Loki said, then sniffed, as if this was displeasing to  _him_ and that she should be honored to receive them. 

"I - what?" She squeaked. 

"She does that rather often," Loki said, sighing dramatically again. "Did you break her, Thor? I thought you said this mortal was _smart_."

"Loki," Thor grumbled, then turned toward her. "Please, excuse my brother. He is crabby from a long and difficult journey."

"Not that I'm not uhm, happy to see you and all but - what do you mean  _you live here now?"_ She grabbed another cup from the counter and poured herself a fresh cup of coffee, drinking it with trembling hands as she leaned against the counter for strength.

"Please, Jane. I know it's a bit of a burden but - the short story is: Asgard is gone." Thor looked downwards, the irresistible sad puppy dog eyes making an unpleasant return. "Asgard is gone, and all that is left of it - well, is out there, sitting by your wall."

"And in here," Loki said, evidently bitter about being forgotten. 

"I'm sorry," she said, and reached over, grabbing Thor's hand. She had enjoyed her time on Asgard; there had been peaceful people there, and science besides. She had not forgotten the soul forge, had even debated asking for blueprints, once. A quantum field generator would certainly be handier than the hand-held portal manager she'd been left to work with after Maleketh had fallen. Now  Asgard was gone, and the people - there had been so many more Asgardians before, of that she was sure. She had not seen Odin among them, either. If this was what was left then...She sat down and grabbed Thor's hand. Loki's eyes flashed in her direction, a perturbed look on his face, but before she could ask him about it, it was gone.

"Of course you can stay, you and, your brother, and - " There was a loud, indignant amphibian wail. Jane turned and saw that the amphibian with knives for hands -  Mieke? - was jumping up and down excitedly behind her. "And, everyone else, of course, although we're going to have to buy some tents."

So much for the quiet peace of her morning routine. She sighed. "How did this happen?"  
  
"Does it matter?" Loki asked; she saw him move forward, a rather fluid motion, not unlike a snake. "We are  _stuck_ in this desert hellhole - "

"Temporarily," Thor said, cutting him off. He smiled, but Jane wasn't fooled. She could see the lines beneath it, the tension. This was an old argument, well worn, and she had the feeling that Loki was not pleased to be here, judging by the fire in his eyes.

"That's fine," she said, trying to smile. It wasn't the worst; sure, Thor and his ...incredibly large group of family and friends would put a bit of a crimp into her lifestyle, but Jane would never turn out anyone who needed help. "I'm honored to be your first choice."

"Actually, you weren't," Loki said, crossing his legs and looking at her very much like a cat who had just gotten the cream. "We went to Norway."

"Norway?" She tilted her head. She wasn't offended, of course; Thor had the freedom to go where he wanted, and it was, admittedly, a bit awkward for him to ask move back in with his ex in New Mexico - but last she heard, the Avengers had been headquartered in New York, not Norway.

"Our father suggested it," Thor said, helping himself to a bit of her coffee - and she could not help but notice that he shared a cup with Loki, nor could she ignore the fact that Loki didn't complain about it. "But the King of Norway suggested we - ah - move elsewhere."

"It turns out humans have a  _problem_  with aliens ruling over you all," Loki said, rolling his eyes. "And you puritanical prudes even have problems with aliens staking out a bit of territory on a useless peninsula - "  
  
"Loki - "   
  
Loki stood up and fumed. "We wanted only land for ourselves, and yet your kind thinks to make us grovel and  _beg!"_

_"Loki - "  
_

Jane raised a hand. "Look, I'm sorry, but uhm, not that I'm not  _thankful_  you came to me but - surely the Avengers can do more for you? I'm just a physicist, not a - "

"The Avengers do not much  _approve_ of me, I am afraid." Loki snarled. "But - "  
  
"I'm afraid that's my fault," another voice said, and Jane turned around, this time seeing another soul entering her already too small trailer. Mieke squealed with happiness and the man pet the - robot amphibian? She was really going to need to ask- warmly. This was a voice she recognized, and a voice she knew. A voice she'd listened to many times, in different podcasts, while working. "I'm Bruce, and ah - I think things with Nat and Tony and Steve and all are, ah, complicated at the moment."

"Oh my god," she said, softly. "You're Bruce Banner." She rushed forward, shaking his hand. "I've read all your work on molecular science. It's brilliant, you-you're brilliant!" She reached off her shelf, hurriedly throwing around books until she found what she was looking for -  _A Treatise on the Cell: Mitochondria, Ruler of Man._  "I have always wanted to ask you, in Chapter 26 - " She paused for a moment, then realized she had forgotten something. "Oh, I'm Jane, by the way. Jane Foster."

"Bruce," he said, and, at the same time, Loki snorted.

"She clearly knows your name, mortal. Honestly, Thor. This woman sees two  _gods_ and chooses to cavort with the other human?" Loki asked. She didn't have to turn around to see the daggers Thor glared at his brother but did so anyway.  When she did, she saw the soft smile on Thor's lips, which took her by surprise. She would ask about that later, but for now - s _cience._  
  
"When you write about mitochondria being ancestral, shaping our destinies over moons and stars - do you think that was an accident? Or could it be something that molds us all, some sort of natural building block that is fundamental across all universes - "  
  
"Oh, that's a fascinating question." He cleaned his glasses on his shirt and looked over at her, basking in his element. "Thor, I like this one."

"Knew you would," Thor said, raising his glass.   
  
"You can stay as long as you want, I - you know, I have a lab here. It's geared toward astrophysics but I can give you some of my space, maybe we could work on a project together?" 

"Of course," he said, sounding pleasantly surprised. She looked over at Thor. He and Loki were still locked in some sort of communication with one another; unspoken, but clearly intense: their eyes did not deviate from one another. Huh. She filed that away as another question for later.

"Thor," she said, and that broke the spell. Thor turned to look at her, but he was clearly distracted. "Can you uhm, make sure that your people are comfortable? We need to think about where we're going to put them all, maybe help set up plans for some tents? Loki too, of course," she said, fumbling.   
  
"Of course," he said, smiling warmly at her, and for a moment she felt it again, the warm tingle of Thor's love touching her and for the first time in a long time, it felt less stifling than it had. Perhaps they could prove Darcy wrong and be friends after all. Shit, Darcy, she was going to have to call Darcy in on this one. She'd never forgive her for not letting her meet  _Bruce Banner_. 

 But first -  _science_. 


End file.
